Search for magnetic monopoles, neutrino oscillations, and superhigh energy physics: Technical progress report

This report describes the technical progress with the Homestake cosmic ray and monopole detector system, and recent results. There are three components in the Homestake detector: a deep underground 150 ton liquid scintillator array in the form of a hollow box 8m x 8m x 16m, an extensive air shower array (consisting of 27 liquid scintillation counters, each 3 m2, located on the surface above the underground detector) and a 1.6 m diameter Cerenkov telescope that views cosmic ray primary interactions in the upper atmosphere. The full detector complex has been in operation since late 1985. In 1986 the transient recorder circuitry necessary for the recognition of magnetic monopoles and other massive, slow particles underground was added. The goals of the Homestake experimental program are to: (1) search for massive magnetic monopoles, (2) measure the flux of high energy neutrinos, search for sources of these neutrinos and look for neutrino oscillations, particularly resonant neutrino oscillations in the earth, (3) measure the composition of very high energy cosmic rays, (4) investigate the nature of the emissions from Cyg X-3, and (5) look for neutrino bursts from collapsing stars